Wednesday, October 30, 2013

No Es Oro Todo Lo Que Brilla

Pero los pajaeros siepre brillan, especialamente los quetzales. El macho crestado, Male Crested Quetzal la mujer, Female Crested Quetzal y juntos. Crested Quetzal Pair El macho quetzal dorado. Golden Headed Quetzal Tambien hay los trogones, la mujer: Female Masked Trogon y el macho. MaleMaskedTrogon Tambien muy brillante pero tambien timido son los tucanes. Plate Billed Mountain Toucan Red-rumped Toucanet

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Ecuador Hummingbirds

It is often cloudy and rainy in the Cloud Forest. As a result getting direct light with high shutter speeds becomes almost impossible to eliminate blur. That being said, there were great hummers at any of the places with feeders that I went. At 2000+ meters you find the violet tailed sylph which is one of the longest hummingbirds in Ecuador, VioletTailedSylph and one of the smallest with the purple throated woodstar. LittleWoodstar One of my favorites is the Empress Brilliant. EmpressBrilliant Due to the prevalence of feeders, the hummers become agitated if the bottles go empty too long. Its not uncommon for them to land on you while "demanding" breakfast. One of the most daring is the buff-tailed coronet. I had more than a few land on my head while up early with the sun. Buff-tailed Coronet Once deployed, every hummingbird in the nabe comes in for a drink. FeedingTime Meanwhile at 1800m at the feeders in El Mirador, you get the tiny green-thorntail in the woodstar's niche. Thorntail4 Down at 1500meter, in Mindo proper the fabulous Andean Emerald. Andean Emerald Also at the Mariposario was the fantastic White-whiskered Hermit. WhiteWhiskeredHermit

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Ecuador Redux

Had a nice opportunity to revisit Ecuador and peel back some of the layers of this country. I spent the majority of my time between Nanegalito and Los Bancos with Mindo Mariposarios being a favored stop. It was a special and needed break from the insanity that sees to be breaking out on daily basis back in the States. In Ecuador I am reminded that birds have lived on this planet for millions of years and survived earthquakes, volcanism, meteor strikes and a few wars. So somehow if I can find them, I too can navigate the cataclysm du jour. So here's what some of that looks like: Las Tangaras! Blue-winged Mountain tanager. BlueWingedMountainTanager Golden Naped Tanager. Golden Naped Tanager Flame faced tanager. Flame Faced Tanager Beryl Spangled Tanager. BerylSpangledTanager Golden Tanager. Golden Tanager Male White lined Tanager Whitelined Tanager Female White lined Tanager. Female whitelined Tanager Blue Necked Tanager. Blue-necked Tanagers Rufous Necked Tanager. RufousThroatedTanager These Swallow Tanagers. Swallow Tanagers Coming next, Hummingbirds!